Page 217 - Petroleum and Gas Field Processing

8

Storage Tanks and Other
Field Facilities

This chapter is devoted to the discussion of storage tanks of crude oil and
other hydrocarbons, vapor recovery units (VRUs), and piping in the oil
field, including gathering schemes.

8.1 STORAGE TANKS
8.1.1 Introduction

The design of storage tanks for crude oil and petroleum products requires,
in general, careful consideration of the following important factors:
The vapor pressure of the materials to be stored
The storage temperature and pressure
Toxicity of the petroleum material
In order to meet the environmental constraints on air pollution, to prevent
fire hazards, and to avoid losses of valuable petroleum products at the
same time, it is recommended to adopt the following:
The use of floating-roof tanks for petroleum materials with a
vapor pressure of 1.12–11.5 psia (at the storage temperature) or
Using fixed-roof tanks along with the VRU system (to be
described later).
These alternatives are schematically illustrated in Figure 1.
Storage tanks for crude oil are needed in order to receive and collect
oil produced by wells, before pumping to the pipelines as well as to allow
for measuring oil properties, sampling, and gauging.

Copyright 2003 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.